Coaldale, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Coaldale, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Coaldale lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Coaldale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coaldale — the short answer
Coaldale, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 20K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Coaldale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coaldale's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coaldale
Each reading below is measured for Coaldale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoaldale runs about 145 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCoaldale sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Coaldale is in
Coaldale sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Coaldale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fremont County.
What Grows in Coaldale
Every plant below cleared Coaldale's own zone 6a and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coaldale?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Coaldale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coaldale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Domtar Gypsum QuarryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Bighorn ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Jones & Young LeaseMining · 3.8 mi
- Perry Delellis ClaimMining · 4.5 mi
- Lois PerniciaroUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Canon Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Verda M YoungUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- Frontier CafeUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- Cotopaxi MineMining · 6.4 mi
- Mocking Bird ClaimMining · 6.5 mi
- No Name Lead MineMining · 6.6 mi
- Jim Foster PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coaldale's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Coaldale.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Coaldale
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coaldale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coaldale, Mining runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Coaldale. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Coaldale
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coaldale average
Your land is one point inside Coaldale
Everything above resolves to Coaldale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 20K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Coaldale Average
Coaldale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Coaldale
- ●One soil character for all of Coaldale
- ●Frost dates read at Coaldale's scale: May 10 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coaldale's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coaldale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coaldale, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coaldale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coaldale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coaldale average
How we know this about Coaldale
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Coaldale’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Coaldale
When does frost risk typically end in Coaldale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coaldale typically lands around May 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 31.
When is the first frost in Coaldale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coaldale typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coaldale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coaldale sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 18, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coaldale?
The federal record around Coaldale is a meaningful one — 32 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Coaldale?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Coaldale rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Coaldale's scale — its 6a band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coaldale's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Coaldale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Coaldale's own scale — its own ~145-day season between 28°F freezes, the 19,870 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coaldale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coaldale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 2 and the ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coaldale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coaldale's boundary and the 19,870 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coaldale's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Coaldale's 19,870 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fremont County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fremont County
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Fremont County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coaldale's 19,870 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coaldale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,870 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Coaldale-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoCoaldale sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides